Ambler Borough Mayor Jeanne Sorg acts out a story to Lower Gwynedd Elementary School students March 5. 21st Century Media News Service.

LOWER GWYNEDD — Students at Lower Gwynedd Elementary School got a lesson in politics and reading, after one local official stopped by to read to them.

Ambler Mayor Jeanne Sorg visited Lower Gwynedd to participate in the school’s Read Across America Day celebration Wednesday from noon to 2 p.m. Sorg dropped by kindergarten through third grade classes and read a couple short stories before fielding some questions.

Read Across America celebrates the life of the late Theodore Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, by encouraging students across the country to get excited about reading through various activities, many of which are Seuss-themed.

Students at Lower Gwynedd seemed entertained by Sorg as she used different voices during a reading of “Skippyjon Jones,” by Judy Schachner, and looked fascinated as Sorg read a book all about frogs.

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Afterward, Sorg took some questions from students, which ranged from what the job of the mayor was, to how someone becomes mayor. One student told Sorg his parents were angry with her for flooding their house with political campaign letters, which got a laugh from both Sorg and teachers. Some students though still seemed very interested in continuing the conversation about frogs and asked Sorg a variety of questions including if she had ever held a frog’s egg and if she liked frogs. Sorg did her best to play along, often stifling a chuckle as she answered.

“Frogs are always a good go-to,” Sorg said with a laugh. “I have more fun than [the students] do. They’re all wonderful. They’re amazing and they’re smart. They knew a lot about frogs. It’s been wonderful. This is a lot of fun for me.”

Sorg later stopped by to meet Max Wolfe, a fourth-grader who recently wrote Sorg a letter about some ideas he had for expanding the borough’s rain garden efforts.

Lower Gwynedd Principal Nicole West said she thought having Sorg stop by was great.

“I think that’s awesome,” she said. “I know how busy she is and the fact that she took time out of her schedule to come and really promote reading, which is something we’re really big on in school, not just on Dr. Seuss Day, but every day, I think it was really important. And I think it was great for our kids to be able to see someone from our community in that level of position coming in and speaking with them.”

West said as far as the rest of the Seussian celebrations go, Sorg “is our major celebrity.”

“Different classrooms have done different things from inviting parents and grandparents,” she said. “We have some of our siblings coming in during their recess time, they’re going to be sharing some reading with their brother’s or sister’s classes. And I’m going to be one of those readers as well.”

West said children’s literacy is crucial for everything they do.

“It’s not just about reading during a language arts block,” she said. “It’s reading for understanding of a math problem. It’s reading for understanding what’s going on in the world. So, anything that we can do as principal, teachers, community members to promote that love of reading is what we want to do here at Lower Gwynedd.”